Teens talk about the latest books for teens. Members of the Bistro Book Clubs include any teen who wants to read and talk about new books.
Additional new reviews for books previously reviewed are indicated after the title.

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bronwyn Alessia St. Vincent Clare proved to be the most amazing female character ever. Her mere presence in the story made it burn with awesomeness, not to say that the plot wasn't appealing as well. Bryn, the badass chick who has been raised by wolves from the age of four, and a secret that holds the key to her past . . . and future. The book hooked me from page one.

This book was easily the best book I've ever read. I don't usually read, but once I started this book I found myself trying to read just a few more pages any chance I could. When I finished this one, I just wanted to start another one right away. I would strongly recommend this to people who have a hard time getting into books. The author moves fast right from the start and keeps you reading. Great book!!!

Violent, aggressive and mysterious describes this book very well. Suggested to everybody. I would like to say that she is a very heartfelt character and would like to see more. This book is about a girl who's family is killed by a rabid werewolf when she's little and is taken in by the pack. I like how despite living with wolves she stays alive.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Megan can see ghosts. Well technically only her twin sister, Remy, who died when they were in second grade in a car accident. After this accident, her dad survived, but never woke up. For the past 10 years he has been surviving in a nursing home with a feeding tube. Since the accident, Remy started showing up every once in a while, maybe once every two months. However, recently Remy has been showing up a lot with scary words like “she is going to die” and “hurry Meggy!” Remy shows Megan the future, and once Megan pieces all the clues together, will it be too late? Will there be time for a budding new romance? Will taking away her father’s feeding tube help Remy move on? Find out in this paranormal fiction book by Amanda Marrone. My rating is 9/10 because it was very unpredictable. Amanda takes a Disney fairy tale and turns it into something scary; you never know how things will piece together until the very end.

The Eleventh Plague is a wonderful book with a heart- gripping plot but... the only problem was that it went too fast. The events seemed too close together and I felt rushed as I read. Some books are meant to be short and this is not one of them. Once past that, this story is simply stunning.

What can I say? I thought this was a great book! Here we go! 14 year old Laura Horton, your typical misfit in pursuit of normalcy, can't catch a break. Laura has recently moved into her Australian neighborhood's oldest and strangest residence, the Visconti House, completely unlike any of the prim and proper houses that line the streets of the town. Making it worse, her strange elderly neighbor, Mrs. Murphy, welcomes her loner grandson (Leon) into her home, and some unseen and (in Laura's eyes) cruel force keeps pulling them together no matter how hard she tries to pull away from him. However, they soon find a common interest. Her home. They begin to work together to try and find the reasons why an Italian nobleman ended up in Australia and built a manor where only one person ever lived. As the mystery is slowly pieced together, so is the understanding between Leon and Laura.

It was really good and I was reading the whole time I had it. Danny North has grown up in a family of "magical beings." They came from another world a thousand years ago, but the "gate" was closed and the family couldn't get back. Now each generation, the magic gets weaker. Gate keepers, the ones who made the gate, were now hated and if one was found, was killed instanly. Danny North thinks he's a dud, but he's a Gate Keeper. He runs away, trying to find a way to learn more about his Gates. He makes friends, and enimies, through his journey.
Rating: 4 Better than most
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Hope, 15
Orson Scott CardThe Lost Gate
Tor 2011

The cover art was beautiful for this book. It had a hint of magic, a hint of mystery, and was very expressive of the contents. Also, I hope there is a sequel for this book, because it left off in a strange place.
Danny North has a serious problem. For thirteen years, he has been considered a useless member of his Family-a family of mages on exile in our world. Danny has no magical abilities that his Family can see; he can not communicate with animals, control elements or anything else his mage cousins can do. Normal people are killed, because they are useless to the ex-gods of the North Family. But one day, Danny discovers he is something even more dangerous then being normal. He is a gatemage, someone who can build magical transportation gates between one place and another. As it was a gatemage that caused the thirteen hundred year exile in the first place, this skill is hated. Hated enough to carry a death sentence with it. Assisted by truly entertaining characters, Danny escapes before his own Family can kill him, but are these people helping him merely because he could bridge the gap between the two worlds? This novel was not a fast read, but fast paced in its action. It was very well thought out, and had great character development. It was humorous even as it was engrossing. I would recommend this for anyone who truly wants to get 'lost' in a book.

Card is an amazing author, and this book is just another one to the many testements to that statement. It tells the story of Danny North who is born in to a family of powerful mages from another world, but in many ways he is not like one of them. It is this fact that forces him to flee and search to uncover the secrets of a forgotten magic. A fast-paced fantasy adventure that will leave you begging for more!!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

If you think you've read THE best book in you're life, you might want to rethink that when you pick up this book. Kyle Chase, aka you, makes small decisions that lead to a very bad destruction to his life. It's not over dramatic or anything, but it's amazing how the story is set up and how the story line plays out.

Hope to get to read the next book in the seires called "Tiger's Quest". What would you do if you were working for a circus, go read in your bedroom or read that book to a tiger? Kelsey a girl who has nothing to do this summer but work for a circus that has only one thing that interests her; a white tiger. Now this isn't any ordinary tiger and from the momment she sets her eyes on him she's transfixed; she has to see this tiger that really doesn't seem too threatening. Being a curious yet stupid girl, over the summer she gets bored and fills her time by reading infront of the tiger soon she starts reading to him, then one night she slept in near the cage and ...she woke up to see the tiger lazily lounging on hay right next to her with the cage door open...through this story this young girl is shaped into a couragous woman who can tough it up to the most dangerous of chalenges...read this book and find out what future she has with a tiger named Ren and why all the unexplainable things happen. I'm glad that I read this book and I hope that many more people will share the same thought of this book. I would recomend it to anyone who likes adventure with a twist of myth and history or it can be recomended to girls who just like those nice stories of where girl meets tiger then she meets boy then she cant decide who she likes better. It also got some laughs out of me for which I can't explain unless you read it and I mean READ IT!

Rating: 5 Hard to imagine a better book

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Briana, 15
Colleen Houck
Tiger's Curse
2011

Kelsey is an amazing character. This book is a unique take on shape shifting. Everything was very realistic, and it was well researched. I loved it!

Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys fantasy with a romantic twist. Houck crammed so many twists, turns, and complete flips into this novel that I couldn't put it down. I would finish a chapter, start to close it then think "One more chapter" and open it back up again.

Kelsey is just your average teenager in foster care looking for a summer job. She finds one doing odd jobs for a travelling circus in town for a few weeks, odd jobs including taking care of their trick-tacular white tiger, Dihren. She's perfecly content just talking to her tiger buddy untill a rich business man, Mr. Kadam, buys Ren from the circus and takes both the Tiger and Kelsey to India. Things are great until Kelsey learns that her Tiger is actually and ancient Indian prince cursed to ba a tiger for eternity and that she is the one destined to break the curse on him and his brother. This book wasn't my personal favorite, but i enjoyed reading it. The plot and charecters are wonderful, but the writing style left some things to be desired (like different adjectives). All together if you like curses and weird romance, go for it! It was a little Twilighty for my taste, except that the mystic side of things actually had mythological bearing.

I sincerely wanted to give this book a cheering review, exclaiming all about its many wonders and great writing. Unfortunately, all I can give it is half-hearted euphemism because I was a bit disappointed. Well, more like exasperated.

City of Fallen Angels is the fourth book in the bestselling Mortal Instruments series, featuring Jace and Clary as our protagonists. Though I was as excited as anybody else for this book to come out, there was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind about the quality of this fourth book. After all, Cassandra Clare had practically concluded the series by resolving the conflict back in the first three books, so why would there be a fourth one?

As I heard someone say, City of Fallen Angels is probably a big, drawn out epilogue. However, it introduces new plot and characters, and I believe that there are two more books that follow this conflict. I enjoyed it, for the most part, but frankly it was very slow throughout the beginning, and there was less 'magic' so to speak, and fantasy than I would've liked. I also didn't like the realization I had somewhere in the middle-in every book, Cassandra Clare tries to force Clary and Jace apart, by curse, possession, or the socially tabooed act of incest. I'm getting kind of tired of it.

So, for the most part, City of Fallen Angels was okay, and I liked it as a whole. I'd liked to see what she does with the fifth book in this series, and I'm looking forward to it.

The story begins with a young abused girl named Frances. Although her mother is very strict and physically abusive, she still tries to be a normal person in a normal high school. When she is accidentally enrolled in speech, she finds out that it's one of her strong points and tries to stay two weeks in speech, before the deadline comes to enlist in her original class, Calculus. She is afraid of her mom finding out about her speech class, but she comes around to the fact and misses the deadline by a day. She desperately attempts to hide her secret class but eventually her mom finds out. This book is fantastic because it shows how Frances changes from the beginning to the end of the book. The point of view in the book really emphasizes the point of the story. A young woman overcoming her childhood and sprouting into the start of the rest of her life.

Rating: 5 Hard to imagine a better book
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Unlike the Dead Tossed Waves this is a direct sequel instead of jumping forward fifteen or so years. Annah watches as her once safe world slowly crumbles. Her best friend Elias left 3 years ago to join the Recruiters but he should've been back over a year ago. The Dark City, the best stronghold against the undead is now ruled by a corrupt faction of Recruiters while the streets grow more dangerous. And the guilt for abandoning her twin sister Abigail twelve years ago has been growing, so rapidly in fact that Annah decides to leave the Dark City to search for her. But on her way out of the city she sees Abigail entering the city and is immediately captured by the Recruiters. Annah has not allowed herself to care about anyone since Elias left but she will not abandon her sister again. But how can she love anyone again when there is so much pain accompanying it?

Zombie books are not unique but Carrie Ryan's are. The beauty and anguish of her writing with an underlying note of hope entrances the reader. How can you have hope in this world where you could die any day from a bite or because somebody wants your blanket? Because hope is all that separates you from the undead. Not to say that this book is not grim. There is plenty of graphic content and the moral dilemmas accompanying the often necessary violence. But the hope, beauty, and love make these books worth reading a thousand times over. Once again Carrie Ryan has surpassed herself in her writing. Each book in this trilogy has gotten progressively better as the ties of family and love are woven ever tighter between the characters. 9/10.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I picked this book up because i thought it looked like it had the same type of writing as Epic and Saga which are really good video game books. i really loved Epic But this book was one of the best i've ever read. it has an amazing story about an ordinary guy just playing a virtual reality video game and he gets a chance to make his own world in this video game universe and it completely amazing if you would really like to see this happen in real life. I LOVED this book because it showed the good and bad of being the common player or the developer of a big online video game.

I loved that it had a What werewolf are you quiz and it was really interesting. This is not the kind of book I would normally be interested in but i skimmed through it and saw that it wasn't just about typical werewolfs. it has everything from lycans to native american shapeshifters. if you are a real werewolf freak then you'll love this book. i don't really get why it had Kitsune though, because Kitsune's are foxes? but i really liked the music, book, and movie reccomendations in it.

i would love to own the 2nd book to this series. my book was action packed and non- stop great reading. if i had to rate it on a scale it would be off the charts. this book was great there should be more book like it. so it was basicallly about a boy named coke and a girl named pepsi and they go on missions to save there life. and that is just one little sentence i can explain about like 5 pages of the book because the book is so great i can explain a million.

This book was great and makes me want to read more. I am going to look and see if there are anymore books by these authors. I definitly give the book two thumbs up! I would reccomend the book to any teenage girl who likes to read hilarious, cute, somewhat romantic, and reliable books. The book was good because it never got boring and had suspensful turns and left me wanting more. The book has some crazy fun filled stories about college that you don't want to miss.

There has to be a second book!! This book is a thrilling page turner the fun just never ends

Rating: 5 Q. Hard to imagine a better book.

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Travis,14
Kelly Creagh
Nevermore

Nevermore is a non-stop thriller that keeps the reader hooked through the whole thing. It has some content that is not good for young readers. This book is diffinitely one i would recommend for readers who want to get caught in the book.

This is a great read! A great Mystery. Sam finds himself in the evil clutches of Douglas who wants to destroy him. With the help of friends and family and table turns and Sam destroys Douglas! I love this book!
4 Better than most
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Brent,16
Lish McBrideHold Me Closer Necromancer
Henry Holt2010

This book is an awesome way to read about the dead. Full of romances, whitches, ware wolves and surprises. this book is unexpecting

Rating: 5 Hard to imagine a better book

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Andrea F., 17Hold Me Closer Necromancer
Lish McBride
2010
Sam is your average college dropout, resigned to his life working the grill at Plumpy’s Fast Food when his medicine bag breaks. Yeah, his mom is one of those hippies who is an herbalist and names her child Samhain, but that medicine bag she made for him really works against those nightmares Sam has had ever since he can remember. Sam’s just finishing up chipping gum off of the bottom of restaurant tables when the evil necromancer called…Douglas? Seriously, Douglas is the evil villain’s name? Anyhow, Douglas arrives and asks what another necromancer is doing on his turf. Turns out that Sam’s medicine bag is not just for bad nightmares, but has also been hiding his magical aura. Looks like his mom has some explaining to do. Now Sam has a decapitated head to comfort, a spirit guide who’s 10 years old and wants pancakes, and an escape plan to think up with a hot werewolf girl. The magical elements could be cliché at times, but the characters more than made up for it with their humor and sheer likability. I laughed out loud frequently while reading this book and I would highly recommend this to anyone who ever read anything supernatural and liked it.
Rating: 4 Better than most
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James, 15
Lish McBrideHold Me Closer, Necromancer

The book was really good from beginning to start. I liked all the abnormal things towards the beginning was a little confusing when it kept going back and forth from the scenes of Bird, Douglas and Sam.

Rating: 4 Q. Better than most.

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Travis, 17
Lish McBride
Hold me closer, Ncecromancer
This book had plenty if twisted points of view including a decapitated one. Plenty of turns and had great description

Rating: 4 Q. Better than most.
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Ursula, 18
Lish McBrideHold me closer, Necromancer
Henry Holt and Company 2010
To be honest, I thought this book might have been good. A lot of people liked it, and it sounded appealing, but I didn't really get into it. The style was descriptive, but typical at the same time. The characters are good, but there's a lack of depth to them.
Rating: 3 Readable
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Austin,15
Lish McBride
Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

This boy named Sam is leaving work one day with his friends and he gets attecked. Later in the book he finds out he is a necromancer and has these powers to rise people from the dead he also finds out that his mom is a witch and his next door neighbor is a witch too that is watching out for him

Thursday, April 14, 2011

I loved this book and I hope for a second. Frannie Cavanuagh is a very unique person. She has speacial talents that have caught the attention of Heaven and Hell. Luc is a demon who fell becuase of Pride. His job: to tag Frannie's soul for Hell. Gabriel is the right hand to the actual Gabriel. His job: to tag Frannie's soul for Heaven. As the two race to tag her soul she falls deeper and deeper in love, but with who. If you had a choice between Heaven and Hell what would you choose? Are you sure about that?

Tell me girls which would you prefer an Angel that looks like he was a sculpted piece of artwork heaven, or a hhhoootttt sizzillin Demon that would burn in hell for you? Well then you've come to the right place! Here we have a Angel and a Demon fighting for ..... was it her heart or her soul? Well I forgot. I n this story a young girl named Frannie (or so her friends call her) is in the middle of heaven and hell and doesn't know which way to go. First she meets the dark and charming Luc (Lucifer not the real one they just use his name a lot) as he tries to charm his way into her heart no one told him that she could have whatever she wanted and no one could stop her. Then as Luc has trouble with other demons trying to capture her soul Gabriel saves the day by being her personal body guard (even though its not hell is it sizzilin in here or what) soon it turns out that its even hard for an Angel to resist temptation...as soon as you get into this book you're going to be like the rest of the people I know; you're just gonna lock yourself up and read until its done...I would like to recomend this book to anyone that would like a like ying and yang to a love story ...... and who will win well you'll never get it out of me!! Would love to have this book and its sequels. Its worth it!

Mary Frannie Cavanugh goes by Frannie, but any way a boy named Luc is trying to tag her for Hell and a boy named Gabe is trying to tag her for Heaven. Luc is trying to tag her but is soon falling in love with her and he does not want her to be with any one else than him. Becuse there are others trying to take her too. Because she has is a special gift that both Heaven and Hell both want.

I would read this book over and over! This book gave voice to one of my personal favorite subjects: the wa between Heaven and Hell. This book capture charecters and conflicts that i haven't read about yet. It was original and well written. I loved how something unexpected kept happening!

Rating: 4 Better than most
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Logan, 13
Lisa DesrocherPersonal Demons
2010
This book tried to use as much spoofing as possible and it was like a heart touching relationship with all the events that such as turning human

I really enjoyed Personal Demons because it was an interesting story; this book is an urban fantasy. I liked the characters. I just couldn't stop reading it, if I was reading and had something else to do I'd get mad because I wanted to read more, it's just that every page you read feeds you more into it. I have a twenty page rule, but with this book with in the first five pages made me want to read more, I just couldn't stop

Gwen is half Pooka, but she only wants to be a normal girl, especially when someone is going around and killing others. Really good book. Love the characters and all the drama.

Rating: 4 Better than most
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Caitlin, 15
Karen Kincy Other
Flux 2010Other was a different kind of book. It was good. Gwen is a very independent girl. I like the way the author starred original characters that you dont see in many books. It was very well written. This is a book i would probably recommend.

I thought this book was hilarious and unbelievably clever! This was an amazing book and pulled me out of a slump from page #1. My Honor's Literacy assigned summer book wasn't even picked up before I had gulped down Bloodthirsty in an entire sitting! Finbar is one of the most complex and self-conscience characters I had ever read about. This book has mind-blowing twists and I would read it again if I don't love my next book!Sequel about Luke? Seems like a good idea...

Rating: 5 Hard to imagine a better book

--------------------Shaun, 13 Flynn Meaney Blood Thirsty

Absolutley thrilling. Couldn't imagine a better book.

Rating: 5 Q. Hard to imagine a better book.

----------------Logan, 13 Flynn Meany Bloodthirsty2010

This book was very funny because I feel like it is a spoof of twilight and everything in the book is so out of nowhere. it makes you wonder how someone came up with this book.

This book is about a boy that has been a loser his whole life, he later finds out girl's "love" vampires so he decides to act like a vampire so girls will like him but he ends up falling for this girl who actually likes him for him and not cause he is acting like a vampire.

4 Q. Better than most. 4 P. Broad general appeal.

I read a couple books a week.

This is a very good book and i recommend this to many teenage readers! I also would like another book from this author!

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Tori, 14Bloodthirsty
Flynn Meaney
2010
Finbar is a nerdy high school guy who decides to improve his image by becoming a "cool" vampire.
Rating: 3 Readable

Its a great book. It teaches a lot and explains the hard times. It has great details. I would recommend this book to girls my age or girls in general because it talks about things in everyday life. About the scariness of pregnancy and the decisions you have to make and consequences you have to face

Rating: 5 Q. Hard to imagine a better book.
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Kayla, 16
Nina de Gramont Every Little Thing in the World
Atheneum 2010

I personally enjoyed this book it was very good, once I started reading it I couldn't stop

This book was about a girl that was taken by a unknown person. this person drugged her and she woke up in a shack in the middle of the forest. This girl found away to get out and is in search of home, I would recommend this book to people it was a great read.

My favorite part about this book is that the dog never gives up for anything and that reminds me of my dog. This book is about what it takes to find a purpose in life when you are a dog and how hard, fun and heartbreaking it can be.

This was a book about a dog and he was born with his brothers and sisters and they get taken away by the dog pound. But one dog gets away and someone picks him up, but leaves him in the hot car to die then a girl comes and steels him. He came to live with them it tells how a dog goes through life and what they see until they die, then they come back.

Shadow Hills was a good book with lots of unseen suprises. This was a good book and I really like the strange things with the town people of Shadow Hills and how it ties in with the main character. I found it to be very enjoyable to read.

Describe the most compelling aspect of the book: The content Should this be nominated for Teens' Top Ten? Why? Yes. It leaves you on the edge of your seat. Rating? 5 Hard to imagine a better book Annotation: What does Phe's dreams mean?
I would like this book at the end of the year!!!! Cover comments: I didn't like it at all

Pull is a teen novel about a teen age boy whose mother has recently been killed by his own father. After the tragedy David and his sisters are sent to live with their less than happy Aunt in Chicago. This new school only brings more problems to David such as girls, less time for work, and a basketball coach who keeps on his case. When David finds himself in trouble with the school after a fight, his only options are basketball or expulsion. Now he has to keep up with basketball (his dream), working to pay the rent, and taking care of his two little sisters. This book is more for teens and would probably be read most by boys. Language and contents make the book a high school not middle school read.

Rating: 4 Better than most
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Kayla, 16
B.A, Binns
Pull

I personally liked this book alot. It was very exciting and I would recommend it to a friend.

Rating: 4 Q. Better than most.
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Heather, 16
B.A. Binns Pull
West Side Book 2010
I absolutely loved this book, very appealing, mind gripping, realistic and a page turner. VERY AWESOME BOOK!!!

Rating: 5. Hard to imagine a better book.
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Kenny, 17
B.A. Binns Pull
West Side Books 2010
Extremely interesting. Keeps reader intranced it goes from one extreme to the next. I would recommend only to certain young groups

It was a very interesting read. It is a great example of the closeness of siblings and how they will protect each other.
5 Hard to imagine a better book
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Travis, 17
Jackson Pearce Sisters Red

A very twisted tale of little red riding hood.Involving werewolves and woodsmen duking it out over long streches of land

Thirteen Days to Midnight is a well written novel that is compelling and addicting yet you should be wary of the dark side of this book. Unlike the popular saying, this side does not have cookies. While the plot was enticing it follows a story bordering upon too gut-wreching. The sad fact is this book draws you too far underwater. For most, I would advise to consider again before opening this book. But, don't get me wrong. I personnally loved this book but then again I am a good swimmer and can pull myself out of the flow of the story before getting too deep. Give this book a try but be aware of your own limits.

Rating: 4 Better than most
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Allana, 14
Patrick Carman Thirteen Days to Midnight
Little , Brown and Company 2010

Thirteen Days to Midnight is a great read for teenagers because it deals with teenagers who have normal problems and then everything changes which makes it exciting. It turns out that the kids have a super power that they can share with each other and anyone else that they want to. With this super power they save lives and play with it until it makes one of them power hungry and crazy. This book has many twists that make it exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat with each turn of the page. I would recommend it to any adventure lover (and it also has a little romance) who is a boy or girl it doesn't matter.

Rating: 4 Better than most

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Jordan, 17
Patrick CarmanThirteen Days to Midnight
Little Brown and Company 2010

Thirteen Days to Midnight is a nail biting seat gripping novel. There is a fine line between curse and blessing

Thirteen Days to Midnight is a fictional story worthy of praise. It's good for all ages and is amazing. The thought that was put in this book is incredible. The twist at the end is awesome. I would recommend this book to everyone.

I would recommend this book to any body who loves vampire stories. When you start reading you won't want to stop. Something that makes it good is the visuals come up to your head while you read.

Rating: 4 Q. Better than most.

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Nathan, 15
Darren Shan The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Birth of a Killer

In all its just a good book I recommend this book for 12-17 year olds. If you like vampire books but what i will say it its not one of the books like Twilight. it has to do about 1 vampire and how his life is and talks about how he became a vampire. I liked how it has to do with the family relationships and there is nothing i didnt like about the book.

Rating: 4 Q. Better than most.

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Shaun, 13
Darren Shan The Saga of Larten Crepsley

Horrifying terrific will have you turning pages non stop. I would definitely recommend this to readers of all ages.

This book went above and beyond my expectations of Darren Shan. A good book with a few scary parts. If you are not a reader this book will hook you and keep you reading. I would recommend this book to anyone

Ruby is a two hundred year old girl in a seventeen year old body. Along with the rest of the community of the people that call themselves the Congregants, they slave for water off of the woodland plants for a cruel man named Darwin West, who beats them brutally with chains if their quota is not met. The water on the plants is special-drinking the Water will allow you to age slowly, very slowly, and heal your wounds quickly. But Ruby has a secret. It is not really the water off the plants that have magical components-it is her blood, which she has inherited from her father Otto, the man who the Congregants all worship. To protect her secret, her mother made up the story, long ago, that the plant's water, only that, would allow you to stay alive for hundreds and hundreds of year. And so they spoon off the water, year after year, through droughts and disasters, waiting for Otto, their savior, to come and rescue them from this horrible slave compound.

Drought was an okay kind of book. I trudged through it only because I thought it would get better, but the characters remained flat, the plot slow, and the culture of the people different and a bit scary. Ruby was a whiny and selfish protagonist, always thinking about herself instead of the Congregants, the people she was leader of. The romance was obvious, which did not make things exciting, and the people, especially Ruby's mother, was too bitter in my opinion. The way Drought ended made me certain there was going to be a sequel, and I look forward to it, though I do hope it is written much better than its prequel had been.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Desires Of The Dead by Kimberly Derting is a sequel to The Body Finder. The Body Finder blew me away, it was absolutely wonderful. It became a favorite of mine easily. Desires Of The dead was just as amazing. Desires Of The Dead is a whole new plot where Violet is not just trying to find a stranger, the killer might be someone she knows. This book made me laugh out loud, scream, cry and at last breathe in a sigh of relief. This book is an easy ten.

This book was almost horrible. Dark Mirror was intriguing at the first glance (and though everybody tells you not to judge a book by its cover, I certainly did) and afterwards, I regretted it. Dark Mirror is about a girl named Lady Victoria Mansfield, a young lady eager to enter into society. The book takes place in 1803, when Napoleon was preparing to invade England. Victoria, or Tory, in the beginning of the book, is still somewhat oblivious to the happenings of this war between England and France, and is excited for her family's annual fete, a type of gala, before she wakes up in the morning to discover herself touching the ceiling, floating. In this day and age, magic is well-known, yet to be an aristocrat and have powers to control at your hand is considered corruption. Tory is forced to attend Lackland Abbey, a reform school that is supposed to stifle the power that you have and return you to your normal, regal life. As her father disinherits her and her friends all turn on her, she has to find another way to survive in the cold, desolate boarding school of Lackland Abbey. What will happen in this place of secrets and mysteries? First of all, Tory was too much of a goody-two shoes character for me to connect with her. There seemed to be nothing wrong with her- she was pretty, had the best and most unique kind of magic, and everyone seemed to take a liking with her in the end. The boy she had an affection for immediately fell for her too. All this added up to a character who was too perfect and was very 2-dimensional because of it. I also hated the romance. The boy she had a crush on, Allarde, was one of the best looking boys at Lackland Abbey, and apparently, he liked her too during the duration of the book. I thought that was highly annoying and only piled up the flat tone of the book. In the end, I thought the plot was okay, the setting and theme okay, but the characters were horrible. I don't think I'll be reading any more of M.J. Putney's books soon, but I wonder if the sequel for Dark Mirror is better than its predecessor.

Romeo and Juliet Code is one of the many secrets in this World War 2 setting. When Felicity is shipped off to Bottle Bay, Main to stay with her dad’s family that she has never meet. Felicity finds more and more secrets rather than answers. One of the main questions is “why is my dad sending letters to Uncle Gideon and not me”. When a secret person named Mr. Donovan shows up asking about the letters only to her uncle Gideon. While the writing was done extremely well however, the plot was just leaving you with most of the questions answered there were new questions that made the book not really have an ending in the end. While so of the love interest was fun to read over the entire book was just hanging in the end. This book will be so much better if there was a sequel that tied up the loose ends of the book. Finally there the cover was very misleading to what the book was going to be like.

Monday, April 4, 2011

This book was probably a 3.5, but rounded it up to a 4 because it has a lot of potential. This book switched perspectives a lot, giving a broad view of the Water game, but I was confused at the begining because I didn't really know any of the many characters. This was probably the only problem I saw with Spray. I think a sequal would be great. This was a very good book.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Likely to be one of the most controversial books this year, Forbidden bravely takes on possibly one of the last sexual taboos in the Western World: incest. Shy seventeen year old Lochan and outgoing sixteen year old Maya have been virtually raising their three younger siblings for as long as they remember due to an alcoholic mother and an AWOL father. They have been partners together in getting the kids to school, cooking, and making sure Social workers don't find out about their mother. Their one goal in life is to keep their family together but what if their own close relationship threatens their most important role in life? Lochan and Maya have never felt like brother and sister. Always equals, always partners, always best friends until one day that friendship turns into something much more. They know they shouldn't be attracted to each other, they know that this could tear their hard won family apart at the seams, but how can they resist a love that feels so right? Here are some guarantees: You will be disturbed by this book, probably deeply You will cringe, scream at the characters, and probably cry. You will find yourself praying that somehow there was a mixup at the hospital when they were born or that the author simply hasn't revealed that they're step brother and sister or at least they hadn't seen each other until they were 13. No such luck. Poor Tabitha Suzuma is going to need a whole zipcode for the amount of hate mail she's going to get. But don't bother addressing that envelope before you finish the book. I was prepared to dislike this book, I even wanted to dislike it. But I found it impossible once I finished it. I forgot that Lochan and Maya were brother and sister if they spent any time alone together. They are quite obviously best friends and their romance quickly becomes real and beautiful, not simply two kids screwed up mentally because they had to raise their younger siblings. If that was true then there'd be a lot more incest going on. I still flinched at several of the, shall we say, more romantic scenes and I wanted to put the book down. But I kept reading because I found myself rooting for these two as improbable as that may seem to you, and to myself when I think about it. So yes, this book is worth reading and it is one of the best romances I've read in a long time. You should read it too, just be prepared to be changed at the end of it. 10 out of 10

Rating: 5 Hard to imagine a better book
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Should this be nominated for Teens' Top Ten? Why?
Yes Annotation: Cassel’s family has always been curse workers --people who by touching you can affect your luck, memories, emotions, and physical health. Of course it’s illegal so they work for the mobsters and when they can’t find work from them they are con artists. But Cassel is different from the rest of his family. He’s not a curse worker, and he’s a murderer. 3 years ago he killed his best friend Lila, who just happens to be the daughter of one of the biggest mob bosses in the US. But Cassel’s family hid the body so good that nobody even knows if Lila is alive or not. Now Cassel is 17 having nightmares where a white cat appears, and suddenly one night he wakes up on the roof of his boarding school with policemen shouting “Don’t jump!” He’s suspended from school until he can get his sleepwalking dealt with and goes to live with his family again. But he starts to notice that his brothers are hiding something from him, something to do with Lila’s death.

Additional Comments My thoughts: Wonderful book, I really enjoyed this story. The plot kept me interested without rushing through important information, the characters were funny, and the story was original. 9 and a half /10 stars

Rating? 5 Hard to imagine a better book
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Friday, April 1, 2011

Mercy is an amazing book!! When mercy becomes carman and trys to help ryan daley, she falls in love with him and helps him. That was the most compelling part of the book. I would recomend this book for others. This is one of my favorite books!! The ending was good but, i hope there is a second book because I want to know what happens next!!!